


toeing the line between taurus and cancer

by magebirdi



Category: Genshin Impact - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, an au where lumine is from a modern day earth, and i want to give lumine more choices than i can get from the game, and is lowkey a self-insert but im saying its valid because i also have a brother, as of right now theres no romance besides maybe lisa x jean, because i just want to befriend all the characters ngl, wouldn't call this is a fix-it fic but it's a flesh-it-out fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27480376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magebirdi/pseuds/magebirdi
Summary: The same story can be told countless times in hundreds of different ways. And though the hero may be from a different time and place and their actions may differ, the core of the story will always remain the same. In a world of seven ancient deities and impressive shows of elemental magic, a story of a princess and her fallen twin tells the same story: of found family, both formerly lost and forged from scratch.tl;dr: An alternate universe where Lumine & Aether are from Earth and end up in Teyvat by mistake - and where Lumine gets a little more inquisitive when it comes to strange bards in windswept towns.
Relationships: Ying | Lumine & Amber (Genshin Impact), Ying | Lumine & Paimon (Genshin Impact), Ying | Lumine & Venti (Genshin Impact)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 94





	1. a prologue of sorts

You know how this story goes: a prince and a princess from another world meet a vengeful deity who casts one twin into the darkness and the other into a deep slumber. The lucky, sleeping twin wakes up an indeterminable time later and adjusts to this strange new world they’ve found themselves in. But, throughout it all, the twin can take comfort in a single thing: they’re a fighter who’s traversed countless worlds and survived them all with their twin at their side. Once they find their missing siblings, nothing can stop them.

But this story isn’t that story.

This story starts a little differently.

It starts with Aether and Lumine going for a walk around the block. Aether and Lumine, by all accounts, aren’t ordinary names, but they aren’t really meant to be. Their parents had a thing for the extraordinary - they’re the result of a push for individuality. Neither one of them has any strong feelings towards their names. They have yet to learn that names have power. The only thing, at this point, that is remotely important about their names is that an outsider would likely guess that they’re from a faraway, fantasy world.

They’re not. They’re from a tiny, suburban town in the United States of America. Planetary location: Earth. They’re just two college freshmen reeling from a national pandemic and trying to find comfort in the outdoors - and in an escape from their parents.

Aether’s the one who goes towards the strange portal humming above the dead end at the end of their street. Lumine’s the one who tries to tempt her brother away from it - with desperate pleas and poorly received bargaining. She’s forced to go running after Aether as he pops his head in through the portal and yells at her to follow. They stand above a world like they’re in some weird three-dimensional view of Google Earth. Aether’s marveling at the sight, but Lumine just keeps babbling about how _we’re hovering Aether_ and _this is straight out of a movie or a book_.

A woman comes. She talks about how she hates humans; Lumine’s barely registered the existence of portals, much less the existence of otherworldly deities. The woman takes Aether. Lumine screams and yells her brother’s name. She lunges for the woman, even though she knows that almighty floating beings who lurk beyond portals wouldn’t be phased by a poorly aimed fist. 

And then Lumine sleeps.

She sleeps for so long that she forgets what it’s like to not be asleep. The world she had stumbled onto changes. A catastrophe she wasn’t even aware of comes to an end; a new one starts to take its place. In the darkness, her twin moves. A new world order quietly builds itself up. A being with more power than she can ever fathom works towards completely nefarious schemes that Lumine wouldn’t be able to comprehend even when awake. 

Lumine dreams when she sleeps. She dreams of seven distant figures - and of the magic that dances at their fingertips. She dreams of colorful gems and powerful gales. And when she finally does open her eyes after her long slumber, she finds herself breathing fresh, coastal air. 

The world has changed, but Lumine hasn’t.


	2. drowning children and wind-blessed souls

Lumine explores.

She peers up at towering cliff faces and wades in the gentle, cool waves of an ocean that seems to stretch for an eternity. She takes off her worn light blue hoodie and ties it around her waist. She contemplates cutting her jeans short so she doesn’t feel like she’s sweating to death in the heat of the midday sun. She knows that she’s in another world now - she can feel it in every inch of her being - but her mind can’t overcome the shock that she’s lost her twin. It’s easier to treat this like some distant, soon to be forgotten dream.

But then she hears cries of help.

She runs across the beach and skids to a stop at a lake that had been tucked away from the water. It wasn’t really a lake, if she’s being honest with herself. It’s a glorified pond. But when she sees a strange figure with abnormal white hair very clearly drowning, she dives into the water and rescues what has to be a child.

There’s the remains of a fire on the beach side. She doesn’t question who made it. The ember is just strong enough to get a flame going when she throws stray twigs and leaves onto the smoldering remains. In the back of her mind, she thanks Aether for his survival TV show obsession last year. They always say that fire is the most important. As she shivers in wet clothes alongside the child she rescued, it finally clicks.

Her brother is gone.

Aether is  _ gone _ .

Her younger brother - younger by all of seven minutes - is  _ gone _ , and Lumine doesn’t know what to do with herself. The child, who has consistently been floating instead of sitting for the past ten minutes, stops mid teeth-chattering ramble to announce her name. She starts to say, “I’m Paimon!” but Lumine cuts her off before she can continue. 

“Have you seen someone who looks like me?” Lumine asks. There’s a wildness to her eyes and desperation to her voice. Paimon falters at the outburst. It’s a question that Paimon will hear hundred and hundred of times more, but this is the one time she doesn’t join in on the questioning. She just silently hovers beside Lumine and gives a tiny shake of her head. 

“No,” Paimon quietly says. “I haven’t.”

Later, Lumine will question why she found Paimon by herself that afternoon. She’ll wonder what made Paimon stay when Lumine went silent and stared into the burning fires. But, on that night, she just pulls her hoodie close - it was a souvenir, bought from a museum gift shop during the road trip Aether and her took together that past summer - and wishes that she’d wake up from this nightmare.

**xXx**

Needless to say, the nightmare continues.

Lumine wants to call it a nightmare, at least. She knows she should. But there’s something  _ fun  _ about exploring this strange new world with Paimon - after she introduces herself to the little floating girl, of course. 

Paimon’s almost as clueless as she is. She knows things, but her knowledge isn’t all that details. She tells Lumine about this world’s dangers: about the hilichurls, the slimes and the Abyss Mages. She speaks of faraway lands and a city guided by the freedom of the wind. Most if is rumors, but they  _ are  _ able to find a little chest tucked underneath the cliff-face on their second night together. Lumine swings around the old, rusty sword like she’s back sparring with Nerf swords with Aether again.

Paimon, wisely, goes for the food and for the money. There’s a few forgotten ingredients here and there. The chest looks so old, but the food looks so new. And when they find a recipe at the very bottom of the chest for chicken-mushroom skewers, neither one argues. Paimon gathers the mushrooms; Lumine washes the meat in the river and pretends that she hasn’t been letting Aether do the majority of the cooking while they were home.

It isn’t -  _ wasn’t  _ \- that Aether was the more capable one of the two of them. Lumine is plenty capable herself. All you would have to do is check her school grades to prove that point. But knowing that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell isn’t especially useful in a survival situation.

The two of them feast on chicken-mushroom skewers. It’s not nearly as good as Aether’s meals, but it’s  _ something _ . When they lay down next to each other that night and stare up at the most beautiful star-filled sky Lumine has ever seen, Lumine is smiling at the thought of showing Aether this sight when she finds him.

Time passes quickly, after that. Lumine experiments with her dirty old blade. Paimon helps her gather supplies. They watch hilichurl camps from afar and note that slimes love gathering around flowers that give off fire and ice. Lumine knows she needs to start searching for her brother, but she wants to be prepared this time around. When she runs into that goddess again, she’ll give her a piece of her mind - and a whack from her trusty sword. 

After two months, Lumine feels fully prepared for the world that lays beyond their coastal home. She springs the question on Paimon early that morning. Paimon is quick to agree. They’re both sick of eating crabs, mushrooms, fish and whatever food they can steal from unsuspecting hilichurl camps. 

They move inland. 

The first thing that Lumine notices is how beautiful it all is. After staying holed up in her house during online classes before all of  _ this _ , Lumine is grateful for the world that she’s only just starting to grasp the size of. She can’t help it - when Paimon excitedly rushes over towards the impressive statue standing tall in the center of a nearby body of water, Lumine hurriedly rushes after her. She’s drunk on the adrenaline and serotonin of it all.

When they finally swim across the water (or hover, in Paimon’s case) and reach the base of the statue, Lumine has a ridiculous grin on her face. It’s too bad she didn’t have her phone on her when she went for a walk two months ago. This statue would have made an amazing lockscreen. She settles for staring up at it instead. 

Paimon explains that it’s a statue of the seven. She’s not really sure which one. Lumine nods along as Paimon talks, investigating the boy-ish face of the figure carved in stone.  _ It’s funny _ , she thinks,  _ that someone so important would be made to look so young _ . Paimon had mentioned the seven archons before, but the importance of them doesn’t really register until she’s looking at a statue in the middle of the wilderness.

Then she feels something.

At first, she thinks it’s just a gust of wind. But the feeling blossoms out from her heart and all throughout her, mixing with the childish glee she’s felt ever since Paimon and her left their camp underneath the cliff. Lumine doesn’t know how she knows this, but she’s absolutely certain that the feeling is magic.

When air bursts from the palm of her hand and slams into the statue - blowing aside a few stray vines that had started to climb up its side - she knows her suspicions.

“Whoa!” Paimon explains.

Lumine can’t help but grin even more.

“I have magic!” she exclaims, amber eyes - eyes that had always bordered on gold - sparkling like she’s a kid on Christmas Day who just got her presents from Santa. 

“The anemo archon must have blessed you!” Paimon adds. She had been hovering beside Lumine earlier, but now she’s excitedly darting all around Lumine and the statue. Both of them are giddy with glee - and completely ignorant of what lays in the forest beyond them.


End file.
